


Hardest of Hearts

by supreme_genius



Series: Howl [4]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Break Up, Brief Sexual Content, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-08
Updated: 2012-05-08
Packaged: 2017-11-05 00:53:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/400104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/supreme_genius/pseuds/supreme_genius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Story based on "Hardest of Hearts"<br/>“There is love in our bodies and it holds us together<br/>But pulls us apart when we’re holding each other<br/>We all want something to hold in the night<br/>We don’t care if it hurts or we’re holding too tight”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hardest of Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own Grimm of Florence + The Machine

** Hardest of Hearts **

“There is love in our bodies and it holds us together  
But pulls us apart when we’re holding each other  
We all want something to hold in the night  
We don’t care if it hurts or we’re holding too tight”

 

Nick was in the living room sitting on the sofa. His hands were folded across his chest, brows were furrowed. He was starting angrily at the television playing a ho-hum sitcom. Juliette was in the kitchen washing the dishes. She was hunched over the sink, tiny hands going to work on a dinner plate. Nick’s phone rang – it was Hank calling about a new lead. He was out the door and in his car before he even ended the call. Juliette was left in the kitchen, alone as usual.

                Her hands moved over a wine glass, gripping it so tightly her knuckles had turned white. She hadn’t realized what she was doing until the glass cracked under the pressure. A gash ran across the palm of her hand; she cursed under her breath and winced at the pain. She rinsed off the cut before wrapping it in a paper towel and heading upstairs to tend to it. In eight years of being a vet and three years of fixing the wounds of her detective boyfriend, Juliette had become well-acquainted with first aid. After cleaning and bandaging the cut, she returned to the kitchen. She slipped on a pair of big yellow gloves – the kind she used to laugh at her mom for wearing. She washed the few remaining dishes and then drained the sink. She carefully scooped up the glass fragments and tossed them in the trash.

                He met Hank at the station. Hank, his partner and friend, knew something was going on, but he wouldn’t press the issue – not when there was business to be taken care of. They were in the interrogation room for all of ten minutes and came out with a signed confession. _A job well done_ , the captain had called it. An hour later, Nick and Hank were walking through the lot en route to their cars.

                “What’s up with you, man?”

                “What do you mean, Hank?”

                “Well, first off, you look like hell: dark circles around your eyes and you haven’t shaved. You always shave.”

                Nick sighed – he couldn’t hide anything from Hank. “It’s Juliette.”

                He confided in Hank everything that had been going on lately – wesen-free of course. He started when Aunt Marie had come to Portland. It was a nice reunion, he’d actually really missed her. After his parents died, Marie was all the family he had left. He’d gotten really close to her growing up; she became a surrogate mother to him. He told Hank about how Marie had told him to break up with Juliette – omitting the real reason. He told his partner how they’d been spending less and less time together and that sometimes it was hard for them to be in the same room together. They didn’t talk as much as they used to, but did a lot more fighting. Then he told Hank about Juliette rejecting his marriage proposal and everything she said that night.

                It wasn’t all bad, though. There were still a few sweet moments. They still shared a bed – most nights – and fights weren’t allowed there. Sometimes they were able to swallow their pride, put aside their anger, and be the cute couple they used to be. It seemed that anymore they had a Jekyll and Hyde relationship.

                “Damn, Nick, I’m sorry. I always thought you two were the picture-perfect, white-picket fence couple – something to be jealous of.”

                “Yeah, me too.”

                They exchanged their goodbyes and drove to their homes. Nick parked his car, walked through the front door, tossed his jacket on a hook, kicked off his boots, and ascended the stairs – his body on autopilot. He tossed aside his shirt and jeans and climbed into bed. Juliette rolled over and gave him a small, sleepy smile; he noticed her bandage.

                “What happened to your hand?”

                “Broke a wine glass – no big deal. You close your case?”

                “Yeah.” Nick brushed off the talk about work and turned his attention to her hand. “Is it bad? Do you need stitches?”

                “It’s nothing, Nick. “

                “You’re bleeding through the bandage. Come on, let me change the gauze”

                He got up out of bed, Juliette following close behind, and walked into the bathroom. He took off the gauze and winced. He cleaned the cut, holding her hand gently in his. He applied a salve that Monroe had given him a few weeks back. He applied a new bandage and pressed his lips to her hand in a light kiss. They returned to bed, laying closer together than they had in the last few weeks. Their relationship had been a roller coaster, and both of them knew the end of the ride was getting close.

                But right now their fights didn’t matter, because their lips had found their way to each other. It didn’t take long for them to wrap their arms around each other and tangle their legs in the sheets. Just for now, they were the happy couple they used to be. He tangled his fingers in her hair; she ran her hands down his chest. He ran a hand up her thigh, beneath the nightie she wore, and up her side. He tugged on the fabric and she sat up, letting him pull it off. His mouth moved down her neck to her bare breasts. Her breath hitched and she fisted one hand in the back of his hair. He moved down her belly, hooking a finger under the waistband of her panties and then tugged them off.

                As he worked his way back up her body, he wiggled out of his boxers. Their hands explored bare skin – the same skin that had touched so many times before had become almost foreign. It’d been too long since they were here last, it was almost like touching for the first time. Their tongues danced in an almost-novice tango. As their bodies fell in sync, her hand found its way to his cock. It was like even their bodies knew it was over. A month ago he would’ve been rock hard begging her to stop teasing him, but now it took a dozen or so more strokes to get him up. But it wasn’t just him. A few months ago, she would have been so wet it could’ve soaked her panties – had she been wearing them – but this time they’d actually need their unopened bottle of lube.

                He pushed into her, thrusts slow and steady. Their bodies were tense from holding in anger, from pretending. Really they were just going through the motions now, bodies working on autopilot. There was a time in their relationship when intimacy came easy and sex was both passionate and fun. It’s not that either of them didn’t want this – they did – it just wasn’t like it used to be. They should have parted ways a while ago, when they could’ve ended as friends.

                It wasn’t that the sex wasn’t still good, there were moans slipping from both their lips every so often. They might not be as in sync as they once were, but their bodies still fit together. His lips on her chest, hers on his neck – they were trying so hard. They wanted the passion to still be there, but it just seemed to keep fizzling out no matter how hard they tried. Nick moaned and bit his lip, he was so close. Juliette was almost there, too, and had her hands fisted in the sheets. Her legs were wrapped around him, pulling him closer. Right now, they were as close as they could get, at least physically…and maybe that could make up for the growing emotional distance, at least for right now. They came within seconds of each other, just as they always had. Her girlfriends were jealous; she and Nick always seemed to be on the same page in every aspect of their lives.

                They laid there in bed, facing each other. Both of them were on the verge of tears. They weren’t holding hands, but their hands were close, pinky fingers just barely brushing. He slammed his eyes shut, creating a damn to hold back the flood of tears that kept threatening to break through. He clenched his jaw. He was taking this hard – harder than she was, for sure. He had done this. He lied and kept secrets. He just shut her out. He kept wondering if things would be the same if he wasn’t a grimm; a little part of him says yes. She was taking it hard, too. She watched the man she loved and devoted three years of her life to, just fade away. She spent so much time alone, it was almost as if she hadn’t even been in a relationship for the past few months. She was watching their life together just wither away.

                “I’d like you to start moving out you things.” Her voice was soft, quiet, no hint of hostility.

                He nodded. “Ok.”

                She rolled over, her back towards him, and wiggled back closer to him. He wrapped an arm around her waist and held her tight. It was no use, but he tried to hold on to her – the woman he’d once wanted as his wife. She held on to his hand, but it was muscle memory not desire. They laid there, shells of their former selves. It was sad really, two people who’d once been so deeply in love and were now just short of strangers. They would hold on to their memories for dear life until morning and then they would part ways. He’d move out but stay in Portland. She’d stay in the house until she could get a transfer somewhere East. They’d sell the house and split the money left over after it was paid off. They’d go back to where they were four years ago: complete strangers on two different paths.


End file.
